Yugioh DMVR: Chronicles of a wanderer
by Azariyel Varro
Summary: A fierce duel, a crushing defeat, then...darkness! Days, months, years,? Who can tell how long our intrepid protagonist was dormant within that void, the penalty of losing a shadow game. Unexpectedly however it awakes in a strange, unfamiliar land. Where is this place? How did it escape? Why can't our hero remember its past, or what it even is? Find out in the tales to come!


Within dusty crumbling concrete ruins, an armored helm lights up with life renewed.

A figure of red metal with gold highlight forces itself up, squeaking metal partly rusted over the joints, thick grey dust caked over heavily scuffed armor, blemishing the once pristine metal to an unsightly degree. Moving groggily, the armored figure surveys his surrounds, thoughts of reminisce flooding his mind. A battle, a defeat, then the shadows came, and then his slumber began.

"Why have I awakened? How have I returned?"

A flash of panic. Checking his right arm, the solemn armored figure is met with a wave of satisfactory relief. It was still there, pristine, in all it's glory. A deck, a duel disk.

_I suppose I should get moving then. This broken city will yield me no answers. I need to know what happened. What happened, what did happen?_

It clutched it's head in pained annoyance. Of course, losing a game of darkness was bound to have harsh side effects. Still, losing memories? Normally you just got banished to a hellish dimension of infinite blackish purple, doomed to wander for all time, tormented by a fell malevolent god and its agents. This though?

_I must say, not too bad a predicament. I'll happily take what looks like the apocalypse over a nightmarish never-ending limbo dimension._

Still, standing around wouldn't get it anywhere. Picking a direction at random, heavy armored thunking foretold it's oncoming trek. It needed to find somebody to duel, it needed to find it's memories, and it needed to get back home if at all possible. All things said, it' been put in worse spots of trouble in the past. At worst, this'd be a lonely, boring journey. At best? A perilous adventure full of interesting turns and fun dueling shenanigans..

Had Azariyel Varro simply looked back, really took in it's surroundings, it would've seen the cloaked figure in silent pursuit, and known the latter possibility to be just what was in store for the journey ahead.

"Well well, isn't that something"

One would normally think a several hours long trek inside of an unknown dimension would yield interesting results, and you'd be right. Only about three hours in and this happens. Right there, in the middle of greyscale nowhere, pops out a dragon from some weird looking purple fissure in the sky. A four winged bluish silver thing with a serpentine body and ridges along it's spine. Just flying around, presumably looking for a meal.

"Good thing this place has a lot of rubble to hide amongst. Now I wait…"

**Twelve hours later**

Amidst somewhat heavy snoozing, Varro's observer comes in to acquire their mark. They move deftly, silently, with nimble fingers to match their well practiced footwork. With motions faster than most could even register, gentler that the brush of a silken hair, something monumentally important to Varro is snatched. Only the telltale shuffling noise of handled cards gives away their heinous crime, an act unforgivable by politer society, the theft of another person's deck.

"Not what I was expecting. Hmmm, I could get a good price for these…no, well… I'll get the trader to assess them"

_**SQUEAK!**_

"…What was that?"

Turning their head down, they got a face full of Varro's upturned helmet, eyes alight with vengeful fury.

** "**Ah…k bye!"

Quicker than the armored wanderer could react, his assailant scurried to hide in the surrounding ruins. Or they would, if it weren't for their pursuer suing it's armored frame as a mobile battering ram to give chase, compensating for lack of dexterity with brute force.

"GIVE ME BACK MY BLOOY CARDS BEFORE I KNOCK YOUR HEAD IN YOU GIT!"

_Must go faster, must go faster!_

Varro made haste with all due speed, it's legs were as oil-less pistons, thunking along with a terrifying amount of seed that would make a locomotive shudder with patronizing enthusiasm.

"Get back here before I make a mess of your sorry self, you thieving cur!"

Surprising, those threats on the thief's well being weren't doing much to slow them down. They took a turn up inside a disintegrating high rise building, rushing up it's frame with a dextrality that Varro found mildly impressive.

_Although, shutting yourself up inside a building like that, no way in or out, not the best call they could've made_

Taking in a deep breath, Varro stole itself, for now the truest challenge was before him. The herculean effort of ascending the buildings staircase.

Overcoming the final step, Varro channeled all it's exhausted weariness into slamming open the stairwell door, greeted pleasantly by the sight of the deck thief, laxly leaning on the far side of the ruins shoddy rooftop, practically napping.

"You, give me back my deck, I won't ask you again!"

The card thief yawned with feigned boredom, rolling their shoulders, before reaching into their cloak, grabbing hold of something most familiar to Varro, presenting it readily for it's eyes to drink in.

"Here, catch!"

The thief threw the cluster of cards towards the other side of the rooftop, clearly aiming for getting it over the ledge. Fortunately for Varro, it'd read the movement before it'd happened, and caught it just before it would've been lost to the sea of grey rubble that was this weird abandoned city, with it's red sky and constant flashes of lightning. It would've really killed him to see his pride and joy vanish in such a place.

These thoughts however were interrupted when he noticed that the deck felt lighter than normal. Running through the cards, it felt indignity once more rise up upon seeing how, quite clearly, most of his card collection was missing.

"I'll give you the rest, for a price that is"

Varro made a sound approximating laugher, the noise echoing through his metal body in a most peculiar manner.

"A duel then?"

The thief nodded. "What else but a duel. Of course, this will be no ordinary duel. The loser forfeits their cards to the winner. One round, first to play doesn't draw.

"And if I refuse"

The thief gestured their white wrapped arm towards Varro, making a taunting motion.

"By all means, feel free to come over and get them"

It too just one step for Varro to figure out the cretin's game. An unsubtle cracking beneath it's armored foot, the aged concrete giving way, it was clear what they intended.

"Of course, I should mention, the footing up here is quite precarious. Now if I were to lose, I suppose I could be convinced to show you how to get down from here safely. Of course, that too would cost you.

_A win-win situation eh. Clever. _

"Fine then, I accept your terms"

Without delay Varro slotted its deck back into its red and gold duel disk, hearing a satisfying click to signal he successful insertion.

"Very good, very good! Though, I must warn you, I think you'll find this battle to be quite the exhilarating affair!"

Whipping out their left arm from beneath their cloak, a ramshackle kitbashed looking duel disk was revealed, connected securely to another white wrapped arm fully covered from the harsh environment.

"Let's just get this over with"

In unison, the two started their stand-off with a single word, spoken aloud with brimming resolve.

**DUEL!**


End file.
